Laura Hamilton

Laura Hamilton is a senior behavioral scientist and research quality assurance manager at the RAND Corporation, a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, and an adjunct faculty member in the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Sciences and Policy program. Her research addresses educational assessment, accountability, the measurement and evaluation of instruction and school leadership, the use of data for instructional decision making, and evaluation of technology-based curriculum reforms. She has led several large-multi-site studies and has expertise in the collection and analysis of interview, focus group, survey, and student outcome data. Recent projects include an investigation of how districts and charter management organizations are implementing new teacher and principal evaluation and compensation reforms and an evaluation of personalized-learning initiatives. She serves on several state and national panels on topics related to assessment, accountability, educator evaluation, and data use. She recently served as a member of the committee that revised the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and as chair of a What Works Clearinghouse panel on data-driven decision making. She is also an editor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. She holds a Ph.D. in educational psychology and an M.S. in statistics from Stanford University.

Learning Sciences and Policy Program at the University of Pittsburgh | P: (412) 624-7677 | F: (412) 624-2662